19th District Council Agenda

Maurilio Garcia – Chair

A market research and brand strategy consultant, Garcia created an initiative through his employer that provides $50,000 grants to local nonprofits. He says the three-person slate’s goal is to push “innovative, research-based strategies that will increase safety in the neighborhoods. We will bring the power to the community, ensuring to include and elevate marginalized voices, and use people power to drive our government officials to make changes in our public safety system.”

He is running in a slate with Samuel Schoenburg and Jennifer Schaffer. Alderpersons Andre Vasquez (40th ward) and Matt Martin (47th ward), 43rd ward democratic committeeman Lucy Moog, 46th ward aldermanic candidate Angela Clay, the ONE People’s Campaign, and Indivisible Lincoln Square have endorsed the three-candidate slate.

• Is CPD adequately funded? No answer

• CPD reform: The police need significant reform

What do you consider the primary role of a police district councilor to be?

Jenny Schaffer, Sam Schoenburg, and I are running together as a slate. Our overarching goal for District Council is to work as community advocates for a modernized vision of public safety that will create safer neighborhoods. We see the District Council as a tool for pushing forward innovative, research based strategies that will increase safety in the neighborhoods. We will bring the power to the community, ensuring to include and elevate marginalized voices, and use people power to drive our government officials to make changes in our public safety system. This is done through building strong relationships.

Why are you running for Police District Council?

As a market researcher for the past 10 years, I have been soliciting the perspectives and opinions of a wide range of audiences in the masses to help clients meet their business goals. Subject matter for my projects have stretched across sensitive subjects such as HIV diagnoses & treatments to the value that fraternities may or may not bring to a college campus. I take passion in listening to what people think and do so via non-traditional communication channels like online surveys and focus groups.

This District Council position needs my skillset and passion for socially impactful work. It requires someone who can meticulously listen to the residents in my district, understand their needs and concerns related to public safety and policing, and then represent their collective voice when working with city officials and police leaders. I am confident my work experience will set me up for success in this office.

My lived experience and passion for giving back also make me a strong candidate. I’ve created a pro bono initiative through my employer that grants local Chicago non-profit organizations $50k worth of services to help better our community. Using my skills to help my community has been a rewarding experience, and I look forward to keeping on doing so within the District Council position.

I am also a person of color living in a predominantly white district. I come from a family of immigrants and am a proud Mexican-American. The police district covered by this position is the largest in the city, spanning across six of Chicago’s wards. I live in the 46th Ward, which happens to be the most ethnically diverse ward in my district. I intend to fight for and proudly represent marginalized communities once in this position. Too often, our (POC’s) needs are muffled, but my goal is to loudly amplify our voice so that our demands do not go unnoticed or ignored. Even more importantly, we know POC and, especially Black Americans , are disproportionately mistreated by police. I want to use this position to demand racial justice and more fair policy making so that we all have positive and productive interactions with policing in our community.

Samuel E. Schoenburg – Nominating Committee

An attorney, Schoenburg is involved in social justice efforts with Cabrini Green Legal Aid and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. He is running in a slate with Maurilio Garcia and Jennifer Schaffer. Alderpersons Andre Vasquez (40th ward) and Matt Martin (47th ward), 43rd ward democratic committeeman Lucy Moog, 46th ward aldermanic candidate Angela Clay, the ONE People’s Campaign, and Indivisible Lincoln Square have endorsed the three-candidate slate.

• Is CPD adequately funded? No answer

• CPD reform: The police need significant reform.

What do you consider the primary role of a police district councilor to be?

To me, the primary role of a District Council member is to put the community’s voice at the center of public safety and policing, to be an ambassador for the community to police and other public safety providers (like mental health, substance abuse, and violence intervention experts), and to advocate for modern, effective public safety solutions.

Why are you running for Police District Council?

I am running for District Council to put the community’s voice at the center of public safety decision-making, and to help make policing more accountable, fair, and effective. This first class of District Council members will shape the future of this new position. I and the two other candidates I’m running alongside, Jenny Schaffer and Maurilio Garcia, are committed to making sure the 19th District Council get off to a strong start and does the job it was created to do. Our strongly aligned values and months of working together as a team will be a huge asset in this new position and allow us to immediately start working to create a safer 19th District.

In particular, my co-candidates and I want to modernize our public safety approach to include expanded emergency services with mental health and substance abuse crisis teams. We further want to ensure needed policing reforms from the CPD consent decree are implemented at the District level, and also that 19th District officers have the resources they need—such as their own mental health supports, maintained days off, and up-to-date training—to do their jobs responsibly and effectively.

Finally, as a gay person living in the heart of Northalsted (formerly Boystown), a mainstay neighborhood of Chicago’s LGBTQ community, it’s important to me that members of the LGBTQ community are safe, feel safe, and have their public safety concerns heard and addressed.

Jennifer A. Schaffer – Community Engagement

A leader of her temple’s social justice team, Schaffer worked with the ECPS Coalition to pass the ECPS ordinance. She says the slate will work to “build strong relationships with all people in the community so we can create a shared vision and effectively advocate our elected officials to enact innovative, researched based policies to modernize our public safety system.”

Schaffer is running in a slate with Maurilio Garcia and Sam Schoenburg. Alderpersons Andre Vasquez (40th ward) and Matt Martin (47th ward), 43rd ward democratic committeeman Lucy Moog, 46th ward aldermanic candidate Angela Clay, the ONE People’s Campaign, and Indivisible Lincoln Square have endorsed the three-candidate slate.

• Is CPD adequately funded? No answer

• CPD reform: The police need significant reform.

What do you consider the primary role of a police district councilor to be?

I think the primary role of the District Council is to build strong relationships with all people in the community so we can create a shared vision and effectively advocate our elected officials to enact innovative, researched-based policies to modernize our public safety system.

Why are you running for Police District Council?

I am running for the District Council because I have a clear vision of how to improve public safety in our community. I want to help create a public safety system that is more expansive and inclusive of professionals that are vital in creating safe communities. I believe we must have mental health care workers respond to nonviolent mental health care crises in addition to having appropriate responses to homelessness and drug related calls.

Additionally, my vision of an expanded public safety system includes supporting violence intervention workers and other data driven crime prevention strategies so we are cultivating safer communities where less crime occurs. By modernizing public safety in these ways we would be making police more available to respond to and solve violent crimes that occur in the 19th District. Additionally, I would advocate for police to be able to take their necessary days off and get the training they need to be most responsible, fair, and effective in the community.

In all discussions around safety, the voices of marginalized people must be elevated. We know that we cannot achieve meaningful, sustainably safe communities until we protect the most vulnerable among us. I am running alongside Maurilio Garcia and Sam Schoenburg. Our strongly aligned values and months of working as a team is a huge asset in this new position and will allow us to immediately start working towards creating a safer 19th District.

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